The Scorch Trials Rewrite

Part 9

I hid my blush and jumped down into the tunnels. Brenda was shining her light down the tunnel as Thomas came in behind me. She walked in first, and I wished I had my bag with me since that's where the rest of my knives were, but I would just find more later. I had one with me now, but it wouldn't last if we kept this up.

We stepped down into a larger tunnel that allowed us to walk with our backs straight. I looked down each direction, but it was clear.

"I think it's this way." Brenda went right.

"You think?" Thomas asked.

I shone my light at the walls, looking at all the graffiti as we walked. "Do people live down here?"

"The Solar Storms forced people underground. Jorge says there's settlements all over these tunnels."

"So what about Jorge? Is he your father?" Thomas asked, our voices echoing off the enclosed walls. It was a good thing I wasn't claustrophobic as well, or this whole journey would've been like walking through hell with no shoes.

"Close enough. Truth is, I don't really know what he is. He's just always been there. And I've always done what he's asked me to do, no matter how stupid."

The tone in her voice made me stare at the side of her face. "You don't think the Right Arm is real?" I shone my light behind me when I heard a distant screech, but it was nothing more than that. The feeling that something could be trailing us in that darkness had me on edge.

"I think..." She continued walking, her eyes narrowing at the darkness. "...hope is a dangerous thing. Hope has killed more of my friends than the Flare and the Scorch combined. Just thought Jorge was smarter than that."

We stopped short when the tunnel split off into all directions, none of which we could see down without getting closer. One tunnel was on our immediate left and split off into two, and the other two split off at the end a few feet up. There was another to our right, so we had a number of choices.

Thomas walked off to check one out, so I said, "Be careful, Tommy."

He stopped, staring down the end of the tunnel while I shown my light down the tunnel to the left. Brenda walked with me, both of us wandering over to look at something on the wall. "Hey. I think it might be this way. Y/N? Brenda? Y/N?" I could see his light bobbing and his voice getting worried.

"Here. Come check this out," I said. He walked over, relief in his eyes the second he saw us. There was something growing on the wall, but I didn't know what it was. It looked like someone had taken all he black veins out of a crank and stuck them to the wall. I followed them with my flashlight to find the source, but when I shone my light down the tunnel, they were everywhere. In fact, they were moving like a sea anemone that was on land.

"Damn," I muttered.

"What the hell is this?" Thomas said.

"I don't know," Brenda answered, inspiring confidence into us. My breath caught in my throat when I realized the anemones were wrapping around the bodies of cranks. Their sound came from my left, and I instantly backed away from it, shining my light at it. There was a tunnel, smaller than the rest, and the anemone was inside there as well.

I was about to run as I heard the screech getting closer, but what came was a rat. I chuckled with relief as it arched its back and squeaked at us. It arched a little too hard and fell from the opening onto its back. Rolling onto its feet, the rat walked closer to us. I grimaced and stepped back from it, but it jumped forward like it wanted to bite me, so Brenda kicked it away from us with a disgusted sound.